July 11 (Reuters) – Most emerging market stocks gained on Tuesday as risk appetite improved amid bets that market-punishing U.S. rate hikes were approaching an end, while equities in China rose on Beijing’s support for the property sector.
The heavily-weighted blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index .HSI climbed 0.7% and 1.0% respectively, boosting the MSCI index .MSCIEF for EM stocks by 1.2%.
Hong Kong-listed China developers .HSMPI jumped as much as 3.2%, before paring gains, after China extended some policies in a November rescue package until end-2024 to shore up the real estate sector, with markets expecting more stimulus soon.
Pakistan’s benchmark KSE 100 index .KSE jumped 1.3% to its highest in more than a year after the country received $2 billion in financial support from Saudi Arabia, another boost for the ailing economy after an IMF bailout.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday agreed to forward to parliament Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military alliance, appearing to end months of drama over an issue that had strained the bloc as war has raged in Ukraine. Turkey’s BIST-100 stock index .XU100 gained 0.8%
“Foreign policy matters for a country (Turkey) that needs external capital, sits close to some of the world’s hottest military conflicts, is part of the route taken by migrants on the way to Europe, and has ambitions to project influence and power in all directions outside its borders,” said Hasnain Malik, emerging & frontier markets equity strategy at Tellimer.
Elsewhere, the Bank of Israel left short-term borrowing rates unchanged on Monday for the first time since early 2022, but warned that rates could be hiked further if inflation picked up again.
Tel Aviv shares .TA125 rose 0.2%, while the shekel ILS= fell 0.3%.
The MSCI index for EM currencies .MIEM00000CUS advanced 0.3%, hitting a near one-week high and on track for its biggest one-day percentage gain in nearly a month.
The dollar =USD weakened to a two-month low after Federal Reserve officials signalled that the central bank was nearing the end of its tightening cycle. FRX/
South Africa’s rand ZAR=strengthened 0.5% ahead of local manufacturing data that could provide more clues about the health of the economy.
A strengthening Russian rouble RUBUTSTN=MCX continued to move further away from a more than 15-month low hit last week after a slump triggered by an aborted armed mutiny.
Among major movers in the Central and East Europe, Hungary’s forint EURHUF= was up 0.3% against the euro, while Czech Republic’s crown EURCZK= was down 0.2%.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Christina Fincher)
